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Chemical Hazard Data Trust Helps Companies Replace Toxic Chemicals with Safer Alternatives to Reduce Human and Environmental Harm
CAMBRIDGE, MA - FEBRUARY 24, 2025 - The Environment and Natural Resources Program at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs announced today that ChemFORWARD is the 2024 winner of the Roy Family Award for Environmental Partnership. Through collaborations with consumer product manufacturers, retailers, chemical suppliers, NGOs, and trade groups, ChemFORWARD compiles and maintains a repository of verified chemical hazard assessments (CHAs) to help companies make informed and environmentally sound decisions about the chemicals used in their supply chains.
For twenty-five years, the prestigious Roy Family Award has been presented biannually to celebrate an outstanding cross-sector partnership that enhances environmental quality through novel and creative approaches. This year’s winning project has developed a digital repository of chemicals, identifying those that threaten human health and the environment, as well as potential safer, functional substitutions. This tool provides an affordable, efficient resource for companies looking to proactively use safer chemicals and complements regulatory initiatives to reduce chemical pollution.
Thousands of toxic chemicals within industrial supply chains travel through water, air, or food supplies, negatively impacting human health and the environment. Over the past two decades, deaths caused by pollution, including toxic chemical pollution, have increased by an estimated 66%.
Companies seeking to eliminate the use of hazardous chemicals in their supply chains are stymied by the limited availability of chemical hazard data. CHAs are costly to conduct, and they are often individually commissioned by companies, using different methodologies, and then siloed away from public knowledge, creating redundancy and slowing the transfer of information on hazardous chemicals and ultimately the manufacture of products using safer chemicals. Companies may refrain from sharing chemical hazard data due to concerns about competition or reputational risks.
“Regulations and restricted substance lists are a great place to start on the journey to eliminating the most harmful substances, but a terrible place to stop, leaving all members of the supply chain vulnerable to regrettable substitution – or a scenario in which the replacement material is of the same or higher hazard than the incumbent,” said Heather McKenney, Science and Safer Chemistry Lead at ChemFORWARD. “Access to affordable, comprehensive CHAs provides verified safer alternatives and alleviates this concern across the value chain.”
ChemFORWARD addresses these problems by developing CHAs that are shared with the entire collaborative, resulting in benefits beyond single clients. After consulting with partners to establish priorities, ChemFORWARD commissions assessments from independent toxicology firms, using globally accepted methodologies for chemical classification. All CHAs in ChemFORWARD are also peer-reviewed by independent toxicologists and subject to continuous monitoring to ensure the best available science. To manage competitiveness concerns, private sector partners can also contribute, under a nondisclosure agreement, formulation information for the assessors to evaluate. This allows partners to protect their competitive formulations while providing transparency based on rigorous third-party assessment.
“ChemFORWARD’s model is very promising in terms of its potential replicability. By working to address social and environmental harm while mitigating disincentives such as competitiveness concerns or reputational damage, the model can help address scenarios in which private industry plays a large role,” said Henry Lee, Director of the Belfer Center’s Environment and Natural Resources Program, which coordinates the Roy Award.
Notable achievements of the project include the web portal, ChemWorks.org, created with support from Apple to accelerate the adoption of safer cleaners and degreasers throughout the electronics industry. Cleaners and degreasers account for some of the highest-use materials in electronics assembly, impacting more than 80,000 workers globally.
Other examples of impact include a collaboration with Apple and Google to develop a comprehensive set of CHAs for safer flame retardants used in electronics and a beauty and personal care collaborative that has published a baseline report that quantifies the use of safer chemistry in the sector.
“Our industry partners demonstrate leadership not only by using safer chemistries in their own supply chain, but also by collaborating to encourage and facilitate others to do the same. Our industry collaboratives are powerful examples of the systems transformation we see taking place to enable safer chemical use globally, across industries,” said Stacy Glass, Executive Director of ChemFORWARD.
ChemFORWARD was selected from a pool of high-potential projects from around the world that are striving to address tough environmental problems ranging from increasing low-income households’ access to renewable energy to mitigating climate impacts on agriculture. A committee of both Harvard and outside experts evaluated the nominees against the following criteria: innovation, effectiveness, significance, and transferability.
The award will be presented to the partners during a celebration hosted at Harvard Kennedy School on March 26.
The Roy family has been a longtime supporter of the development of cross-sector partnerships to meet social and environmental goals. The Roy Family Award for Environmental Partnership provides positive incentives for governments, companies, and organizations worldwide to push the boundaries of creativity and take risks that result in significant changes that benefit the environment.
This year marks the eleventh time that the Harvard Kennedy School has bestowed the award. The 2022 award recognized ColdHubs for using solar-powered walk-in cold rooms to reduce post-harvest losses for smallholder farms across rural Nigeria. The 2020 award recognized Clean Water for Carolina Kids for protecting children from exposure to lead in water at daycares and schools.
For Media Inquiries:
Elizabeth Hanlon
Harvard Kennedy School
ehanlon@hks.harvard.edu
1-617-495-5964
Mikaya Thurmond
Milan PR
info@chemforward.org
1-919-900-8496
Hanlon, Elizabeth. “ChemFORWARD Wins Harvard’s Roy Award for Environmental Partnership.” Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, February 24, 2025